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Most voters won’t get a choice for Legislature

For all of the ad money that will be spent, and newspaper stories that will be written about races for the New Mexico Legislature in the coming weeks as Democrats look to wrest back control of the House, lost in 2014 for the first time since 1952, an

Most voters won’t get a choice for Legislature

For all of the ad money that will be spent, and newspaper stories that will be written about races for the New Mexico Legislature in the coming weeks as Democrats look to wrest back control of the House, lost in 2014 for the first time since 1952, and Republicans try to solidify their hold by taking over the Senate, it is worth noting that 54 of the 112 races were decided on filing day.

The majority of voters in the state will not get to make a choice between a Republican and a Democrat on election day. Only 21 of the 42 Senate districts have a candidate from both parties on the ballot, and just 31 of the 70 House districts.

As every carnival barker would tell you, you can’t win if you don’t play. Which is going to make it tough for Republicans to win back the Senate. They aren’t playing in 18 of the 42 districts.

Democrats running unopposed in districts 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 14, 16, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 31 and 35 will all take the oath of office next January without having to knock on any doors, hand out any yard signs or attend any debates.

There will be competition in Senate districts 3, 4, 17 and 22, but only among Democrats. Whoever wins the primary will be uncontested in November.

On the Republican side, free passes will be handed out in districts 2, 7, 27, 32, 33, 34, 41 and 42. There are no Senate races in which Republicans will vie in a primary, with the winner then uncontested.

That means Democrats will go into the November election with an 18-8 lead before the first vote is ever cast. Republicans would have to win in 19 of the 26 contested districts to take over control of the Senate.

The dramatic head start for the Democrats means Republicans will have to win in 22 of the 36 contested races in November to maintain the speaker’s gavel.

Voters in Silver City and Deming will have the most choices in the state. There are only three districts where voters in both parties will have a choice in the primary, all with open seats now held by Republicans – House districts 24 (vacated by Conrad James) 32 (vacated by Donna Irwin) and 38 (vacated by Dianne Miller Hamilton).

Our area did better than most in fielding candidates for both parties. Still, Sens. Joseph Cervantes and John Arthur Smith will be able to rest easy from now until November, as will Rep. Doreen Gallegos, all Democrats.

While there will be plenty of issues to debate, starting with the state’s lagging economy, lawmakers removed what had been one of the more emotional wedge issues when they reached agreement this session to reform the state’s driver’s licenses to bring them into compliance with federal law.

With no one great motivating issue to drive voters to the polls, and such a head start for Democrats going into the race, it would seem to be an uphill climb for Republicans this year. And that’s not counting the likely drag at the top of the ticket.

Walter Rubel is editorial page editor of the Sun-News. He can be reached at wrubel@lcsun-news.com or follow @WalterRubel on Twitter.